Stanford University visualises data during surgery with Apple Vision Pro AR
One of the first groups of medical professionals and biomedical engineers from Stanford Medicine to use a cutting-edge augmented reality (AR) tool into their surgical operations is this group.
By using virtual and real-time visual data, the Apple Vision Pro headset technology makes it easier for people to communicate with computers by letting them explore their surroundings.
The innovative use of augmented reality (AR) in the surgical suite, in the opinion of Lloyd Minor, Vice President, Medical Affairs, Stanford University, and Dean of the School of Medicine, is a perfect example of Stanford Medicine’s mission to provide patients with a highly sophisticated, patient-focused care environment. He is pleased that the organisation is using programmes like RAISE Health to define the safe, responsible, and equitable implementation of these discoveries. The healthcare sector has always been at the forefront of the usage of technological gadgets in healthcare.
With the patient’s informed consent, a cardiologist at Stanford Hospital successfully corrected atrial fibrillation using an ablation procedure. At Stanford Health Care, our operating rooms and interventional platform are outfitted with the latest technology. According to Stanford Health Care’s president and CEO, David Entwistle, spatial image processing has great promise for enhancing the surrounding environment.
Alexander Perino, MD, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Stanford Health Care, performed an ablation during the procedure. An ablation is a common therapy for heart arrhythmias, which result in rapid or irregular heartbeats. During an ablation, Perino often keeps an eye on many monitors, one of which shows a live, anatomically accurate picture of the patient’s heart along with the instruments he uses to treat cardiac areas that are generating arrhythmias. Additional screens provide vital signs, X-rays, and ultrasound images in addition to other essential information needed to perform the therapy.
Perino claims that there isn’t enough room in an operating room for all eight screens, each displaying a separate set of real-time data, to be arranged conveniently and have their contents examined. According to him, staff workers must assist with the often ineffective process for processing information and change since surgeons and proceduralists cannot directly connect with information in the current systems.
Perino receives secure real-time data from a workstation and displays it on a virtual monitor quickly and autonomously using the spatial computing helmet. These monitors include all the data needed to finish the procedure. When wearing the headset, Perino may also see the patient and the operating environment normally.
The headgear tracks his eye movements to determine his focal point of attention. He may use a quick hand gesture or finger squeeze to move the displays or zoom in on various data streams. Perino said he could easily reposition the virtual screens to a more comfortable position and then double their size to increase visibility.
Throughout the procedure, the surgical team also displayed what Perino was seeing via the headset on regular monitors. Instead of getting rid of what they usually use, they are just adding a new layer at this point. Our current goal is to evaluate the output of the new technology and ensure that it performs as well as, or better than, our current arrangement.
It’s unclear whether and how the technology will be used more widely in operating rooms. Perino and his colleagues, however, are enthralled with their first successful application and are already formulating ideas for other uses of the spatial computing system, including sophisticated applications in the operating room as well as training and educational programmes.
There’s plenty to learn, according to Perino. The team thinks that for the time being, this first presentation will help establish the instrument’s reputation as a helpful tool for surgeons and proceduralists looking to remove barriers to effectively and joyously analyse and modify intraprocedural data. Utilising these developments might ultimately help our patients.
